Overview

Be the best you can be' urge self-help books and makeover TV shows, but what kind of self is imagined as needing a makeover and what kind of self is imagined as the happy result? Drawing on recent sociology and psychology, this book explores the function of slummy mummies, headless zombies and living autopsies to creating an idea of self.

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9780230242951

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Reviews

'A well-written, up-to-date dissection of lifestyle media and makeover culture. Raisborough's book is a compelling read for all students of contemporary media culture.' - Rosalind Gill, Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis, King's College London, UK 'Jayne Raisborough's analysis of lifestyle media and the roles it plays in forming selves is powerful and compelling. With clarity and great insight she outlines the complex relations between self-transformation, neo liberalism and lifestyle media that now infiltrate almost every aspect of contemporary life. Most importantly, her finely nuanced observations show how class, gender and sexuality are dealt with in this new world of compulsory 'self-authorship'. Deploying an array of fascinating examples--from 'clutter porn' to the 'living autopsy' to 'addiction discourse'--Raisborough demonstrates, beautifully, that lifestyle media is far from benign entertainment and indeed that the 'viable selves' it creates are accompanied by symbolic and psychic violence.' - Meredith Jones, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia

'A well-written, up-to-date dissection of lifestyle media and makeover culture. Raisborough's book is a compelling read for all students of contemporary media culture.' - Rosalind Gill, Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis, King's College London, UK 'Jayne Raisborough's analysis of lifestyle media and the roles it plays in forming selves is powerful and compelling. With clarity and great insight she outlines the complex relations between self-transformation, neo liberalism and lifestyle media that now infiltrate almost every aspect of contemporary life. Most importantly, her finely nuanced observations show how class, gender and sexuality are dealt with in this new world of compulsory 'self-authorship'. Deploying an array of fascinating examples--from 'clutter porn' to the 'living autopsy' to 'addiction discourse'--Raisborough demonstrates, beautifully, that lifestyle media is far from benign entertainment and indeed that the 'viable selves' it creates are accompanied by symbolic and psychic violence.' - Meredith Jones, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia

'A well-written, up-to-date dissection of lifestyle media and makeover culture. Raisborough's book is a compelling read for all students of contemporary media culture.' - Rosalind Gill, Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis, King's College London, UK

'A well-written, up-to-date dissection of lifestyle media and makeover culture. Raisborough's book is a compelling read for all students of contemporary media culture.' - Rosalind Gill, Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis, King's College London, UK 'Jayne Raisborough's analysis of lifestyle media and the roles it plays in forming selves is powerful and compelling. With clarity and great insight she outlines the complex relations between self-transformation, neo liberalism and lifestyle media that now infiltrate almost every aspect of contemporary life. Most importantly, her finely nuanced observations show how class, gender and sexuality are dealt with in this new world of compulsory 'self-authorship'. Deploying an array of fascinating examples from 'clutter porn' to the 'living autopsy' to 'addiction discourse' Raisborough demonstrates, beautifully, that lifestyle media is far from benign entertainment and indeed that the 'viable selves' it creates are accompanied by symbolic and psychic violence.' - Meredith Jones, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia

Author Information

JAYNE RAISBOROUGH Senior Lecturer in Applied Social Science at the University of Brighton, UK. Her work explores the contextual and emotional dynamics of selfhood. She co-edited Risk, Identities and the Everyday and her current work explores lifestyle TV, media representations of death and middle-class sensibilities.

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